debt management company

[maz1234]

Hi I was with a debt management company, they were paying my creditors £1 per month,I was paying them 300 per month, I have now decided to leave the debt management and pay my creditors more to get out of debt much quicker. I had They told me I had to give them 60 days to use the £
2000 pounds in my pot to settle as many debts as they could,I gave them theamount of time they wanted and asked when my refund of just over £1000 would be sent they said it would be the next refund to be sentand all the refund forms had been filled in.then I had a letter saying that the £ !000 was noe being used as a fee.
I paid them 700 as a start up fee then they took 17.5% for each debt they settled,
so now I cant settle any of the small debts I have ,I rang some of my creditors and they they were'nt offered any settlement offer. they were just paid £1 each month.

[Amethyst]

Re: debt management company

Hi Maz

Sorry to hear you are having problems with this company you trusted to assist with your debts. Could you tell us the company name, someone may have a good idea how they operate and how to gain redress against them.

Do you have copies of your original contract / agreement with them?

Debt Management Companies have strict rules to abide by laid down by the OFt and actually are currently under investigation and consultation for tightening of those rules so you should be able to complain through the OFT/Trading Standards if the do have a consumer credit licence.

[maz1234]

Re: debt management company

Hi the company is immediate financial.

[Caspar]

Re: debt management company

This is taken direct from thier website.


How much does the service cost?

We charge 17.62% of the distributions made to creditors. There is often a set-up fee, but this will be confirmed with you in writing before you join the plan.




Now if you were paying them £300 per month, by my reckoning they should have been taking £52.86 in charges and paying £247.14 to your creditors.


It is very hard to see how they can justify what they are doing as £1000 is not a figure that sits comfortably with their charges.



The up front fee is obviously a separate one. If you want to stick with a DMP that is managed for you, have a look at people like CCCS or Payplan as they do not charge fees and are just as good!

[maz1234]

Re: debt management company

I think what they are saying 'Im not sure why' is that because I said I dont want them to manage my debts anymore they are taking a 20% of my outstanding debt as a fee.this is what I cant understand, when i said I was coming of the debt management , they told me I had to give them 60 days to finalise any debts they could, they didnt do this . any debts they did settle for me in the past they had their fee of 17.5%. I cant understand why they are charging another fee for the debts that are not settled.
when I.ended the agreement with them some of my debts were only 100 or 200 pounds and as there was £ 2000. saved from the 300 pounds a month i had been paying them.they could have settled these as i asked them to several times, in the last few month I was with them.
I dont how to get the money I had saved with them back.

[CleverClogs]

Re: debt management company

I think what they are saying 'Im not sure why' is that because I said I dont want them to manage my debts anymore they are taking a 20% of my outstanding debt as a fee.this is what I cant understand, when i said I was coming of the debt management , they told me I had to give them 60 days to finalise any debts they could, they didnt do this . any debts they did settle for me in the past they had their fee of 17.5%. I cant understand why they are charging another fee for the debts that are not settled.
when I.ended the agreement with them some of my debts were only 100 or 200 pounds and as there was £ 2000. saved from the 300 pounds a month i had been paying them.they could have settled these as i asked them to several times, in the last few month I was with them.
I dont how to get the money I had saved with them back.

Sue them for breach of contract, as the £1 per month they were paying your creditors is much less than the £247.14 per month they had available.

When you win, invoke section 4 (3) of the Debtors Act 1869 (link) or section 5 (link) to enforce the judgement. As there has not been a case of someone being sent to gaol for a civil debt for decades, this should be rather newsworthy.